Unpopular opinion alert: I don’t care how Jack died.
Don’t get me wrong — I love This Is Us. It's the only network show I watch in real time. Last season in an early episode, when we saw present-day Rebecca for the first time, she was coming to Randall’s door with her husband. This was following the premiere that showed world's-greatest-husband-Jack and — I’ll admit — I gasped out loud when it was Miguel, not Jack, by her side. It was a great twist, and a fun little mystery that would slowly piece together as the season went on.
However.
Now it seems like the How-Jack-Died mystery takes center stage at some point in every episode. We keep dancing around it, characters give hints and even the promos allude to the big reveal only to keep you guessing when the episode finally airs.
We’re all morbidly awaiting this tragic death scene, but I watch this show because I want to see how the family grew up and the relationships between the characters. It’s obviously important that Jack died, but how the characters deal with his death interests me more than how he took his last breath.
In this episode, Kevin begins filming his big movie with Sylvester Stallone, only to have a panic attack after Stallone mentions Kevin’s father (Kate previously told Stallone how much his movies meant to their dad and how often they watched his films as a family). While Kate previously claimed responsibility for Jack’s death, it’s clear in this episode that Kevin is the Pearson who has dealt with it the least.
The bulk of the episode circles around Kevin’s grief, which is sparked by his interaction with Stallone. When Stallone realizes Kevin’s struggling, he attempts to comfort him, only for Kevin to brush it off and saying his father's death “was a long time ago.” Stallone responds, “In my experience, there’s no such thing as a long time ago. There’s only memories that mean something and the memories that don’t.”
That quote hit me as the perfect definition of grief. My best friend died in a car crash almost nine years ago and every time “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” is on the radio I cry a little. Memories that mean something have a stronger hold than memories that don’t — and time has virtually nothing to do with it.
Beth and Randall become foster parents when Deja, a teenage girl being relocated after her mother’s arrest, comes home to their home. For a second, I thought the show was going to make the transition too easy: Deja gets an attitude, Randall gives a sweet speech and Deja smiles warmly at him. However, when Beth and Randall tell her that she might be with them for a while because her mother is staying in prison, Deja loses her cool and storms off.
As someone who works with difficult kids, it’s nice to see that Beth and Randall didn’t hit it out of the park. Sometimes you can be nice, warm, and do everything right — and teenagers are going to shit all over you.
In the past, Rebecca tries to reconnect with Jack, who has been pulling away in his stretch toward sobriety. At the same time, teenage Randall puts an ad in the paper looking for his birth parents. When someone responds to the ad, he goes to the park to meet his potential birth mother only to find a woman clearly looking to get money out of him.
This wasn't one of their heavier episodes — which at times can be a nice break — but it was still solid.
Catch The Pearson Wrap-Up the day after every This Is Us episode.
This article appears in Oct 5-12, 2017.